It is often advantageous to incorporate joystick pointing control into computer keyboards, video game controls, hand held remote controls and similar devices. Various computer keyboards, video game controls, hand held remote controls and similar devices are known to incorporate joystick pointing control. In such applications the design of the joystick pointing control utilized has been dictated by several considerations, including, the overall size of the design, the number and cost of component parts, and the ease or difficulty encountered in mass production and associated cost of production. As a result, prior joystick pointing controls incorporated into such devices required an inordinate amount of force to operate, were limited in speed and direction variability, required an extensive amount of space or otherwise exceed the pricing point of similar devices incorporating joystick pointing control.
Accordingly, it is the object of the present invention to provide an improved joystick pointing device, that occupies very little space, requires less force in operation thereby obtaining increased user controllability, has greatly increased speed and direction variability with quicker more accurate response, and can be assembled and mass produced from a small number of component parts, with a consistent quality and uniformity at a low price.